It's about guts and giving it everthing

I wanted to share an interesting thing I witnessed this weekend. It was at the CYO Meet of Champions that was held Saturday and Sunday at Jesuit High School and involved the 4x100 relay team and Taylor's little sister Payton. Payton runs for the Cub [younger] division for St. Pius X. Now the team from The Madeleine had been dominating the sprints at the Cub level all afternoon. The St. Pius X coach pulled the 4x100 relay team aside and told them that they are going to concentrate on the 4x400 relay since that was our only chance to get to the championship and that 3 of the 4 spots would now be filled by the alternates [one being Payton]. These 4 girls had never stepped foot on a track together and they didn't even know each others names! They grabbed a baton and headed to the infield to practice. Up in the stands talk was about St. Pius X not getting beat too badly and how hard this was for the girls as we watched them drop the baton and fumbled through hand-offs. In the stands the Madeleine team watched. They had won their heat easily.
The announcer announced the event and the girls took their perspective position around the field. Taylor's sister had been given the honor of anchor for this heat. The starter raised the pistol and BANG, the race was off! Around the first turn there really wasn't much position change. The St Pius X team was holding onto the 5th place spot. Miraculously the hand off went smooth as a couple other teams faltered the exchange. St Pius X began to ease into the 4th spot, then 3rd. The second hand off was flawless as these little girls began to believe. The third leg picked up even more ground and caught the first place All Saints team. As they rounded the last turn to the final hand off the crowd began to rise. Could this happen? Could this team of alternates be for real? Could this team actually place? When Payton took the hand off she left the box like a rocket. The All Saints anchor was right on her heals. But for today, for this moment, no one would catch her. Not today.
Down the back straight in front of a packed Jesuit grandstand, the St Pius X anchor exploded. The crowd was on their feet roaring! As Payton crossed the finish line ahead of the rest, the place went absolutely nuts! No one, not the coaches, not the fans or other teams believed this team had a shot. But it only took 4 to believe, and believe they did. They gave it their all, more then anyone thought they had, because they believed in themselves. They will now represent St Pius X in the Championship heat the following day.

So I guess the moral here is you gotta believe. That is why I always prefer to be the underdog. Teams write you off and then they don't prepare as hard, they don't practice or train as hard. And then when it comes to "Go Time", they are unprepared and the underdog will come up and bite. Do you think those other relay team girls thought St Pius X had a shot with 3 alternates? Do you think that anyone in the stands gave them a shot? The only people who believed were the ones on the field. They were scared but do you think they ever thought of giving up? Or giving any less than their very, very best? Not on your life.

So lady warriors, the next time you take the field against an opponent who may be older, faster, bigger, just remember this little relay team. Remember how the only thing they thought about was giving it their all.

If you think you can, you can. If you believe you can, you will.

GO SODIUM!